Skiing in Japan
The final highlight of this winter has been skiing. I have been skiing for the past four weekend in a row. The last weekend was a three day weekend and my new buddy, Dereck, and I decided to take a trip up to one of the famed spots near us called Appi. Appi, we heard, had the most terrain, including the best lodges and some high speed chairs and gondolas. Since it was a three day weekend, we had some trouble finding a ryokan to stay at since most places seemed to be filled. Dereck and I searched and searched on the internet, but were only finding space in the high-end hotels. At school I briefly mentioned that I wanted to go to Appi for the three day weekend but was having difficulties finding a place, and suddenly Atsushi-sensei, our head teacher came to the rescue. Atsushi-sensei is an avid skier and had been to Appi many times, so he recommended a guest house that he had stayed at that was cheap and close. We found the place online and it seemed too good to be true since it was literally a five minute drive from the lifts and only $60 a night, including breakfast and dinner, and $10 off of lift tickets. One of my English teachers, Dai-sensei, was nice enough to call the place and there was one slot left! We booked immediately. Early Saturday morning Dereck and I drove up to Appi and what we were told would take 2-2.5 hours actually only took 1.5 hours! We found our ryokan, fairly easily, got our discounted ½ day tickets and had a great day of skiing. It was a beautiful blue bird day. After skiing we headed back to the ryokan for a wonderful Japanese style 5-6 course meal. This was the first ryokan I’ve stayed at where there was so much food that I couldn’t finish it all! The next two days were full days of skiing. Appi was indeed what it claimed to be. My only beef with the ski areas I have been to in Japan is in the odd stair-step way the lifts are designed. Often you have to take 3-4 little lifts to get up to the top of the ski area. Well Appi didn’t have this problem at all. Quite the contrary, Appi had 2 gondolas and one high speed lift that took you right to the top of the mountain. The other issue I have had with Japanese ski areas are that the runs are fairly narrow and there isn’t many open or back country areas. Although the runs at Appi were very long, they were indeed fairly narrow and straight down. This, coupled with the fact that it was a busy weekend and the slopes were packed created the potential for some treacherous collisions. Luckily, there were no problems of that sort. The snow here in Japan is amazing because it’s so cold, and Dereck and I found one whole area of the mountain that didn’t have as many people and some fun runs. On Sunday evening we went out to the local large hotel in the area looking for some nightlife, but there was none to be had. We headed back on Monday afternoon, tired and content, both agreeing that it was a wonderfully successful weekend.

English Camp
Every year for the past 4 or 5 years, Izumi High School, Miyagi’s biggest high school located in Sendai, has held an English Camp. This is a three day, two night camp with first year high school students. Kevin and Amanda are the two JETs working at Izumi this year and luckily Kevin is my good buddy, so he invited me and some of the other second year JETs to be staff members at this year’s English Camp. (Above: the whole crew) I jumped on the opportunity, always liking a change in my usual routine at the junior high school. I was looking forward to the camp because Kevin told me that the kids attending camp had to pay for it, so that meant these were this kids who would be excited and motivated to learn English, quite unlike some of the kids we all have in school who don’t like English at all. Indeed, Kevin was right. 95% of the kids there really tried using the English that they knew and weren’t as shy as the kids I’m used to working with at the junior high. Each of the 8 JETs at the camp was in charge of a group of 5 kids. This was way cool because we got to know our group a bit and developed a good relationship with the kids. My group was really fun. The students signed up for a variety of classes that us JETs taught. These included foreign language (non-english), music, games, culture, arts and crafts. (Above: Some of my fans watching me work out) I taught American culture with Kevin, Arabic with Julianna, and Dan and I taught the kids a rock song (Dandy Warhols- Bohemian Like You, from Portland, baby! Woop woop!) that we accompanied with two guitars. The JETs and teachers had a blast! In the evening the students got the opportunity to watch a western movie (Transformers or Finding Nemo), then went back to their rooms to write a diary entry/reflection about the day’s events that they submitted to their JET group leader each night. Reading and responding in the diaries was one of my favorite parts of the whole camp. After the oishii Japanese dinners each night, us JETs would pile into one of the rooms to talk about the day or about JET life. Casey, Dan, Kevin and I all played guitars, so both nights we enjoyed jamming and singing together. When the diaries arrived we would all take turns reading the funny or cute things that our group members had written. The final day of the camp was the speech contest and the skit contest. (Above: Dan and I teaching the kids how to ROCK!)Each group had practiced a skit at school to be presented at English Camp on the last day. These skits were based on a fairy tale, or popular movie and were often hilarious and quite entertaining. Finally, after the closing ceremony, the students were allotted about a half hour to take picture and get autographs. By this time, I had reached rockstar status at the camp, mainly because I was one of the only single guys, I was outgoing, and because I could play rock songs on the guitar. I would walk into the lunch room and 5-10 girls would shout out, “Keennny!!!” It was hilarious. Oh, did I mention there were 35 girls and 5 boys? Yeah, so that added to the rockstarness. We rode together back to the school and said our final goodbyes. (Above: Parting is such sweet sorrow...) It was one of my most rewarding and fun experiences in Japan to date, mainly because you could tell we really made a great impact on the kids. The students were given immediate feedback on their English and saw that they could do it! It worked! And that was really neat to see. Also, it was just simply a fun, natural, authentic environment for the JETs and the students to practice/teach English. There were no tests, no memorization, and there wasn’t a teacher lecturing at the front of the room while the kids have to shut up and listen. To me, this is what real teaching should look like. This was the ideal situation for English instruction and learning, yet it just felt so natural and normal. This is what I feel the English teaching environment should be like everyday. (Below: The Legends...)

Winter
It’s been a long time since I have written. Not much has been going on here. Highlights that have happened between the last time I wrote and now have been a fun trip back home to Oregon, English Camp, and a lot of skiing.

Home
Going home was a wonderful treat. I was so excited in the days leading up to going home. The first thing I was struck by being back in western world was just how big people were! Right when I arrived in Seattle I was shocked by both the physical size of people, and by how large our energy/persona was. People seemed to be big in every way, big voice, big bags, big strides, big helpings of food. I guess living in Japan I have become so used to things being much smaller, and the people being a lot quieter with their voice, and with how they carry their energy. The Japanese way of being humble has grown on me and really appeals to me. (Left: Mcennamins with some of the T-Hills Alums. Elsie Windes, second from the right, will be in the 2008 Olympics for water polo! GO Else!)

Don’t get me wrong, that was only my initial impression. It was wonderful going to my parents house and opening a stocked fridge filled with delicious food; good cheese, bread, dips, Mexican food… the list goes on. My first night home there was an water polo alumni game out at T-Hills that I participated in. I wasn’t in shape to do very well in the pool, but it was so great to see all of my old polo friends. Some of us went out to the McMinnamins Roadhouse afterwards and there I enjoyed my first Microbrew in 18 months as well as an amazing Northwest salad and a Captain Neon Burger (blue cheese and bacon). This slammin’ feast was just the first of many to come over the next two weeks.

This year, Christmas was at my cousin Joanna’s new house in Milwaukie. Seeing all my family in one place was a joyous occasion. Here are some pics from that night: (Left: Me, Moms, CK aka "New and Improved Golden Fro", and Bobs

On New Year’s Eve Pink Martini was doing a show at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, something they have (Left: Pink Martini) been doing for the past few years. Well, one of my best buddies, Charlie Bradshaw has been their tour manager for the past two years, and he scored Ben and I tickets for some great seats. The show was amazing. Pink Martini never ceases to surprise me with the blend of musical sounds from all over the world. Ben and I tried to find some action going on around downtown after the show but were a bit disappointed to find Portland rather quiet and many places were closed! Ahh Portland, some things never change! But it was a quality New Year celebration with fantastic music and the company of a good friend. Thanks Chuck and Ben!

On one of my final nights in Oregon some of my friends all got together for a great dinner at the Montage, one of Portland’s legendary dining establishments. In attendance were: Chad, Ben, Blaine, Eric, Scotty Manos and his wife and child, Jared and his wife, and Mike and Ikuko, my friends from the JET Program who had JUST moved to Portland that day. It was an amazing evening of friends, good food, good wine, and a bit of billiards. I felt honored that I had these wonderful people in my life who would come out to spend some time with me before I headed back to Japan. I hadn’t seen Scotty Manos or Jared in ages and hadn’t met their wives, so it was good seeing some old friends. (upper left: Jared, Ben, Chad, myself, Blaine, Eric= eastside biznitches!)

In all it was great to go home. I spent a little too much money and ate too much food (I gained 8 lbs!) but it was well worth it. It was useful for me in the fact that it prepared me for when I go home for good in August, and this is what I was hoping for. It got me ready for the reverse culture shock that I would experience, for the re-acclimation to the US cuisine, and gave me a good blast of friends and family, which reminded me why I wanted to go home in the first place. (Left: New residents to Portland, Mike and Iku-chan, meeting one of Portland's long-time citizens)